So shook I, the Hermaphrodite....
Then in the blinding dædal dawn
The god cried ‘Eleutherion!’ ”
Then in the blinding dædal dawn
The god cried ‘Eleutherion!’ ”
“His signal for the crew?” I asked.
He said: “No longer were we masked.
In me a madness rose and fell,
Beauty and lust made visible.
At the god’s beck, at the god’s side,
Where whoso drank was deified,
And by the wine-press, circling round,
The Mænads drank without a sound.
Flowers on their breasts, grapes in their hair,
But from each mouth a wild despair;
Yet secret — for we dared not cry,
Lest the still city waken by,
And underneath the serene sun
They slay us ere our task be done....”
In me a madness rose and fell,
Beauty and lust made visible.
At the god’s beck, at the god’s side,
Where whoso drank was deified,
And by the wine-press, circling round,
The Mænads drank without a sound.
Flowers on their breasts, grapes in their hair,
But from each mouth a wild despair;
Yet secret — for we dared not cry,
Lest the still city waken by,
And underneath the serene sun
They slay us ere our task be done....”
“Glaucon,” I said, “of Æacus,
Writes that in Glisas there came thus
At evening in the slanted light
A naked youth, a stricken wight,
And far as islets in mid-sea,
Followed him bands of minstrelsy.
Then he, compassionate and bowed,
‘O beautiful ghosts,’ called forth aloud,
Writes that in Glisas there came thus
At evening in the slanted light
A naked youth, a stricken wight,
And far as islets in mid-sea,
Followed him bands of minstrelsy.
Then he, compassionate and bowed,
‘O beautiful ghosts,’ called forth aloud,
18
